Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
“She’s fine,” I said through my teeth, although I’d seen it too.
I wasn’t enjoying seeing her frown when one of the dumb fucks ignored her or walked away from her. But that wasn’t sending me into a blind rage, so this would have to be the way it was. Miller was our top trainer though. I was gonna deal with him. He didn’t need to make her feel unwanted, but he needed to be careful with how he spoke to her.
“She asked Jim this morning if she’d done something to offend him. He feels like a shit for the way he’s having to treat her. The man is happily married with kids. He’s not gonna flirt with her. Can I at least let him talk to her when she tries to make conversation?”
I inhaled deeply as I watched her slowing down. Jim would probably be fine, talking to her. She liked all that chatty shit. She was nosy as fuck too. Why that made me want to smile, I didn’t know. I wasn’t about to actually do it, but the tug on the corners of my mouth was there. I’d heard her asking him about his kids more than once. He seemed happy to talk about them and his wife. Might as well let her have that. Maybe it would stop her from frowning so damn much. It was her smile that I craved.
“Yeah,” I said as she made her way over toward us.
“Yeah, he can?” King asked.
I cut my eyes at him. “Yeah,” I repeated.
“He needs this job. He needs the insurance for his family,” King said.
“I get it,” I snapped at him, then turned to watch Capri as she came to a stop in front of us.
It wasn’t like I killed every man who spoke to her. I just punished the ones who upset her and steered away the ones who wanted to fuck her. I didn’t see Jim doing that. He was one of those decent guys who lived a boring-ass life.
“He’s incredible,” Capri said, grinning down at me.
She glanced over at King, and the wariness in her eyes didn’t go unnoticed. Had he told her she was supposed to be focused on Bloodline? Fucker needed to mind his own business.
“I’m going to go get Bloodline out here next,” she told him.
I didn’t like her trying to appease King.
“Take Zephyr for a cooldown, then back to the stables for Jim to take care of,” I told her.
It wasn’t wise for her to stay here and talk to King like that in front of me.
She nodded, and I could see I’d made her nervous. That was a good thing.
Seven years ago, I’d had to force myself to stay the fuck away from her because my reactions to when others did something to her that I didn’t care for had been getting more violent. Perhaps the stalking I’d been doing wasn’t completely staying away from her, but I needed reassurance she was okay. I was letting that get out of hand now that she was here several days a week. When she wasn’t here, I found myself going to watch her. I used to not do that so much. It had just been every couple of weeks.
“I’m not mad, Capri,” King told her, and my muscles tensed up.
What the fuck was he doing?
Her expression eased, as if she was relieved. Why did she care so damn much what King said? I’d made it real clear that I was her boss. Maybe not to her. But the rest of them knew.
Her gaze shifted back to me, and she flashed me that smile. Damn. The irritation that had been mounting evaporated.
“Thanks for letting me ride him.” The slight waver in her voice, as if speaking directly to me made her nervous, was cute.
I nodded my head and said nothing. King was listening, and I wasn’t about to give him some shit to dissect. He didn’t understand. None of them did. Hell, I didn’t even understand it. But what I did know was, she was a drug I needed. When nothing else worked, just seeing her settled the darkness inside me. I could feel something. The connection or whatever it was she stirred in me was unlike anything else I’d experienced.
She turned Zephyr back toward the track and left to go cool him down like I’d told her.
“You scare her,” King said.
I turned to look at him with the cigarette between my teeth. “I scare most people.”
He smirked. “Yeah, but you like her. Why are you scaring her?”
“Who said I liked her?” I replied, not appreciating his interest in this.
“Every action you’ve made since she started working here,” he said.
I glanced back out at her. He had no idea the depth of whatever this was I had for her. Like wasn’t even in the ballpark. It was closer to compulsion.